'Survivor' Scoop: New Season, Same Trick

This week's episode of the CBS hit opened with the Timbira tribemates turning a pot of beans into a hill of beans. When Coach decided the beans needed to cook longer, he threw in some river water to "soften them up," raising the ire of his tribemates who knew that the "dirty river water" would need to be boiled in order to be edible. Unfortunately, a rainstorm followed, causing the beans to take longer to cook, and by the time they were done, they were burned on the bottom.

Brendan called it "another one of those Coach moments" while Sierra said, "There's just a part of me that finally had just had it."

Over at Jalapao camp, Taj and Stephen continued to strategize over their secret four-way alliance with Timbira tribemates Brendan and Sierra, debating about whether to bring country boy and team leader JT in on the fact that they had a hidden immunity idol.

When time came for the reward challenge, the teams had to construct barriers against the opposing team, and then try to throw fragile ceramic pigs through the barriers without breaking them. Timbira took an early lead, and despite Jalapao catching up to them midway through the game, they eked out a win. They decided to send Joe to Exile, and he chose to bring Timbira loner Erinn along, planning to use his "charm" to convince her to work with him if they both survived to the merge.

For winning the reward challenge, the Timbira tribe was treated to a barbeque next to a beautiful forest waterfall. After gorging themselves on hamburgers and watermelon, the team had a lazy afternoon of swimming and bonding in the shadow of the falls. "The first bite of the burger was just like heaven," Brendan said, while Debra noted, "We were like animals," about the tribe's enjoyment of their feast.

At Exile, Erinn found the clue, but decided to let Joe in on it. Meanwhile, Taj and Stephen realized that if Joe solved the clues, he would discover that the hidden idol was hidden in tree mail back at camp, and Taj took to fashioning a fake idol. She placed the idol in the requisite spot, but then carelessly left her real idol back at camp, where it was spotted by JT. Taj and Stephen's hand were forced, and she told JT that she had the idol.

"I don't want you and Stephen to go out prematurely. If you need it, you can have it," Taj told JT.

"That's a big promise, hopefully she'll keep it," JT told the camera.

Next up, it was time for the immunity challenge. The tribes had to use a slingshot to break tiles, releasing bags of puzzle pieces. Tyson proved to be an expert shot, breaking the tiles quickly and giving puzzle makers Erinn and Brendan an early lead and a win. Meanwhile, JT didn't work as fast for Jalapao, and the time he lost early on seemed to cost his tribe the win.

Back at camp, Joe followed the immunity idol clues, finding Taj's fake idol, and, for the umpteenth time in "Survivor" history, fell for the trick, hook, line and sinker. "I was stoked, it was just pure relief," Joe said triumphantly of finding his fake idol.

Meanwhile, the Jalapao tribe members began to strategize over who to send home. Joe and Sydney were convinced it should be Taj, while Taj, Stephen and JT wanted to try to convince Joe to send Sydney home. Joe wasn't having it, however, telling his tribemates that he'd already promised to take Sydney to the merge. With an inflated sense of his own power in the game, he told the camera threateningly, "If they don't give me any consideration, I might hand over the idol to Sydney and make a point."

Meanwhile, Stephen showed his stripes, proving himself to be more loyal to JT than his alliance-mate Taj. He confided to JT that while Taj found the idol, she had given it to Stephen for safe-keeping, so technically she didn't have the idol. JT and Stephen debated blindsiding Taj, and JT said, "I'm probably going to decide what I do when I get there. This is terrible -- I'm going to hell," he told the camera with a devilish grin.

But when it came to tribal council, JT and Stephen proved faithful, as Sydney was actually the one who was sent home. Ironically, Joe did not provide Sydney with his fake idol, though it wouldn't have saved her anyway.

Published 4/2/09 by